In an exclusive interview with ITVoice, Mr.Rajiv Warrier, Country Head- ESS Distribution, reveals his strategies for business in India..
Vikas Gupta :- What will be your growth strategy in India for this financial year?
Mr.Rajiv Warrier :- We at ESS are looking at growing our business by 28% to 30% for the financial year 2016-17. Last year, we have achieved record figures registering over 25% year-over-year revenue growth as a result of expanding our partner network in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. We are constantly working on increasing the network of channel partners as going beyond security products and strengthening our presence in fast growing segments such as data recovery and backup, cloud storage, etc.
Vikas Gupta:- With so many vendors offering security solutions, do you think customer loyalty is a major issue?
Mr.Rajiv Warrier :- With IT getting into each home, technologies like Cloud and Virtualization are catching up. There are multiple apps and tools used daily by both home and enterprise users, and in case of businesses, trends like BYOD become a reality which needs to be addressed by comprehensive policies. Considering the number of solutions available in the market to solve these issues, the customers will only benefit if they associate with reliable and knowledgeable solution providers. I personally feel Data Security solutions is a huge market and there are opportunities for every player. There cannot be a single vendor who can offer all solutions required by customer and there can hardly be one solution that can fit customer’s requirements fully.
Vikas Gupta:- How do you think your enterprise channel partners should pitch ESS to execute profitable business deals?
Mr.Rajiv Warrier :- ESS is a distributor that supports its brand company to establish larger presence in the Indian market by understanding the technologies provided by this brand and imparting knowledge and expertise to our Channel Partners. We become a “multi factor authentication” service between the Brand and the Partners! Our Partners can understand the pain points of their customers and pitch the right solution in totality with confidence. This will result in happy customers and hence a profitable business for all of us.
Vikas Gupta:- What is your Go to Market strategy? How channel helping you to grow in the market?
Mr.Rajiv Warrier :- We at ESS have a great Sales, Support, Marketing and Backend team. Hence, our Go to Market strategy is to understand our Brands in totality, identify the UPSs that will get most of attraction in Indian market particularly, and guide our channel partners according to Brands’ strength and philosophy. Our channel policies are another component of our business strategy. Channel has helped us grow in the Indian Market over the years. We have channel partners who arrange partner meetings and event, support us in making case studies and whitepapers highlighting customers’ experience with products provided by us along with our partners, and finally our channel partners help us build the brand awareness in their respective regions.
Vikas Gupta :- What are the key differentiators of ESS in anti-virus market?
Mr.Rajiv Warrier :- A decade-long experience in India and other markets helps ESS Distribution deliver robust and unified business product portfolio. ESS has always been focusing on Security solutions. Apart from traditional security software for protection of endpoints and servers, we are promoting innovative solutions designed to protect company’s data more efficiently and cost-effectively. This includes various backup and recovery solutions that help solving many challenges of complex enterprise IT environment, data encryption solutions suitable for businesses of all sizes. Small businesses and large enterprises require solutions that provide best user experience and the highest level of protection while able to handle simple and complex network configurations, so this is the kind of solutions ESS is focusing on.
Vikas Gupta :- What will be the company’s strategy as far as system integrators are concerned?
Mr.Rajiv Warrier :- System Integrators are the ones closest to a customer and hence ESS strategy is to train their Sales and Support team for the latest solutions and technologies that ESS is providing in India. We at ESS believe in the philosophy of Givers Gain and, hence, the more we Give the more we have the opportunity to grow in India.
ITVoice :- With virtualization and cloud gain across enterprise, what will be ESS approach in this aspect?
Mr.Rajiv Warrier :- ESS is looking at adding niche solutions especially in cloud segment, and, at the moment, are studying the model as to how we can integrate our channel partners into distribution of these solutions.
Vikas Gupta :- What are your plans for working with system integrators?
Mr.Rajiv Warrier :- We at ESS believe that System Integrators are our technical arm and we always help them enriching their knowledge of the security products through advance training and workshops. Our business expansion can only happen with the help of SIs located in various parts of India. We would like to take this opportunity to invite the SI’s who would be interested to partner with us to contact us at [email protected]
